I injury my left IT Band 5 years ago in a crash. It has flared up again. Yes I know rest, ice and stretching. My question is what I can I do while I recover that will burn some calories. I what to do something while recovering so I don't gain weight and from going crazy from not riding?

See if your Ortho Doc and/or Physical Therapist will give you a blessing to go soak your head... or go jump in a lake... or pool and do some swimming and water exercises. These will be low impact and if you avoid exercises that over use the lateral thigh muscles such as the breast stroke or the back stroke using a frog leg kick. Do more upper extremity workouts to get the calorie burn. Visit with your Doc about doing easy spinning on a stationary bike without pushing a hard gear. You may benefit from some Physical Therapy modalities such as deep heating, massage and ultra sound therapy to the ileotibial band area.

Now to keep from packing on the calories faster than you burn them, I am going to give you some advice that you may think is contrary. I want you to eat a lot and eat often. The key is what you eat. Cut out the processed carbohydrates which are sugars (e.g. glucose, sucrose, fructose, lactose, maltose), white flour, white potatoes and white rice (if it's white, don't eat it). One cup of either white rice, white potatoes or white flour is equivalent to one cup of sugar because they are pure starch which is just a polymer of linked glucose (sugar) molecules and when these starches are digested they gets converted to back to pure glucose. These sugars in your blood raise your insulin production which in turn leads to increased storage of fat. So what do you eat? Complex carbohydrates in the whole grain form with the fiber in the bran and the protein in the germ, lots of vegetables, fruits but NOT fruit juices (concentrated sources of sugar without the benefit of the fiber of eating the whole fruit), lots of legumes (beans, lentils, nuts) and if you eat meats, keep the cuts lean and small. When you want seconds, go back for more veggies. You donít need a high amount of protein in your diet (0.5-1gm/kg [2.2lbs]/day which translates into 2-4 ounce of protein per day. Remember meat is about 70% water before cooking so an 8 ounce serving of lean 90% meat precooked has 5 ounces of water and 2 ounces of protein so you donít have to eat a 16 ounce rib eye to get your protein needs. Why is this an issue? Commercial animal protein (translation feed lot meat which is most of what you get in the grocery store) is often high in the undesirable saturated fat that plugs your arteries. Choose your meats carefully, lean cuts with trim the excess fat, throw in salt water fish 2-3 times a week (if you can afford it and desire it) which are high in the desirable fats unsaturated omega 3 fatty acids. Target for eating at least six times a day. Yes, you read right. Have breakfast (1), halfway between breakfast and lunch have a snack (2), have lunch (3), halfway between lunch and supper have a snack (4), have supper (5) and have a snack before bedtime (6). Snack on whole grain items, fruits and veggies. Leave the processed carbs out. Every time you eat have a fruit and/or a vegetable with a goal of 7 to 9 servings of them. It sounds like a lot but letís break it down with the following example: breakfast, have some blue berries with whole grain cereal and skim milk (1), have a snack, granola bar with an apple (2), lunch, whole grain bread with lean cold cut, skim cheese, lettuce with tomato (3) and an orange for dessert (4), have a snack whole grain crackers, skim cheese and a pear (5), supper bean burrito with whole wheat tortilla, pico de gallo consisting of diced tomatoes, peppers and onions (6), steamed broccoli on the side (7) and some pineapple for desert (8 ) and before bed a snack of some grapes (9). For drink have water or decaf tea or decaf coffee. Leave off the sweetened drinks, real or artificial (the artificial sweeteners lead to more cravings for sugars and of course stay away from the sugars). I do make exception for sports drinks WHEN exercising strenuously in the heat. The small amount of glucose in the sports drinks helps you absorb the electrolytes and water more efficiently avoiding dehydration. It is not a complicated program. You get to eat a lot of the right foods and eat frequently. That added to daily increasing of your activities in simple but consistent ways you can pull down the weight slowly and keep it at a reasonable level for your height or if you are already there, it can help you maintain your ideal weight.